Won't Let You Die
by Danny vs A Month
Summary: A little of Kirito's time could have changed things. Maybe not a lot, but enough. KiritoXSachi
1. Chapter 1

I do not own Sword Art Online or any of the characters.

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><p>Hunt<p>

Kirito ducked under a tree on the twenty sixth floor and then helped Sachi after him. Her level had fallen behind the others so Kirito had decided to train her personally until she was stronger. He had also decided she was better off as a lancer than a sword and shield user.

"Thank you for training me," Sachi smiled.

"Of course," Kirito smiled. "And when I'm done with you, you'll be able to kill all of them. What do you say?"

"Sounds like fun," Sachi grinned.

He nodded and sent her a team request and she accepted. They would both get experience from any kills but until they dissolved their team, the others experience wouldn't affect them and vice versa. They continued through the forest, looking for anything at all that they could fight. Finally a pair of monsters sprinted out of the trees at them. Both looked like gnomes and wielded weapons. One a sword about a foot and a half long and the other a miniature axe.

Kirito blocked both blades, shoving them back then stepped back past Sachi.

"Tag, you're it," Kirito whispered.

Sachi nodded and stepped forward, jabbing her spear at one gnome and the other slashed it aside, the one she had attacked speeding toward her.

"Use an ability," Kirito instructed.

Sachi pulled her lance back, the entire weapon beginning to glow before she spun, lance arching through the air and smashing into both gnomes, launching them away. They both exploded on impact and Kirito clapped both eyebrows raised.

"That was impressive," Kirito stated. "I haven't seen that one before. What else can you do?"

Sachi showed him a few more abilities, one being a lunging stab, one being a blocking ability where she spun her lance, and one being where she threw it then it reappeared in her hand. He was impressed by the techniques she had and could see she was happy that he liked the abilities.

"Alright, the next one is all you," Kirito stated. "Think you can handle it?"

Sachi nodded. no sooner had she agreed did a massive spider shoot out of the trees. It leapt at them and they scattered. It turned toward Kirito who ducked behind a tree then leapt away as it exploded.

_That can't be..._ Kirito began but trailed off as Sachi's lance embedded itself in the spider's rear. "Sachi no!"

Too late. The Spider wheeled around just as the lance returned to Sachi. The spider spit a massive net of webbing and Sachi held her lance out, spinning it. The net was shredded and Sachi activated another ability, lunging forward and driving the lance into the spider's face. She ripped it back out and leapt back as the spider leaned back, roaring and slashing at her with its legs. She looked at its life bar and paled. It had barely lost a sliver of health.

Just as she saw this, Kirito leapt over the spider with a sword in each hand, flipping and slashing an 'X' in its face and landed on his feet, spinning and slashing it across its stomach before bringing both swords straight up its body. Then the spider exploded and Kirito went into his menu, putting his whitish blue sword away and swapping his skills, making sure to not let Sachi see what he had equipped.

"That spider seemed a lot stronger than the gnomes," Sachi spoke up after a minute of sorting through her level up alerts. "I leveled up twice from that."

"It was from four floors up," Kirito stated. "A friend of mine told me about them."

"I know you're a higher level than you let on," Sachi stated. "I don't know why you don't want us to know but I'm not going to ask. So, how did the spider get down here?"

"I don't know," Kirito admitted. "There's a weaker version near here but they're not that fast and don't have nearly that much health."

"What do we do?" Sachi questioned.

"Be more careful," Kirito stated. "I'll keep my sword out and ready. If you need me I'll step in. We'll both get XP from it anyway."

Sachi nodded and they both continued through the forest. Kirito kept his sword out and ready but it wasn't necessary.

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	2. Chapter 2

I do not own Sword Art Online or any of the characters.

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><p>Sleepless Nights<p>

Kirito closed his menu as someone knocked on his door.

"Come in," he said and the door opened and Sachi stepped in holding a pillow.

"I'm sorry," Sachi smiled shyly. "I can't seem to get to sleep."

Kirito blinked in surprise then smiled.

"You're welcome to stay with me for tonight," Kirito offered.

Sachi's face brightened and she nodded. Kirito smiled as well as she walked over, setting her pillow on the bed and climbing in. She lay down facing away from him and he opened his menu, switching out of his battle gear and into his nightclothes before closing his menu and sliding under the blankets beside Sachi, facing away. He turned the lights off and after a couple of minutes, his mind drifted to Sachi. They were still a team, and he had been training her for two weeks or more than a month. She was now level thirty one, the others all about level twenty four. Kirito himself had reached level forty eight but that was it. He knew Sachi knew what his actual level was but she had never said anything about it to anyone, including him. She had confessed to him that she was afraid of dying, to the extent that she wanted to run away from the guild and the others and just live on the lowest floors until the Assault Team cleared the game. Kirito himself could see the positives of the plan but had talked her out of it, promising her that she wouldn't die and that together, they would clear the game and get home. He wasn't as sure of his ability to keep the promise as he would like but he didn't plan on letting her die so long as he was alive.

"Kirito?" Sachi spoke up after a bit, and Kirito suspected what she wanted.

"It's okay," Kirito smiled rolling over to look at her. "I promise you're going to survive."

She rolled over as well, smiling but shook her head.

"It's not that," she stated. "I believe you. I know you'll protect me and the others. I also know that you're a lot higher a level than you say. Why don't you tell the truth?"

"I...I'm just worried that the others will accuse me of being a Beta, or a cheater, and kick me out," Kirito stated.

"Are you?" Sachi asked. "I know that the Betas aren't any different than any other players except for knowing how to play. Most worked together to make the info guides to help other players. There's nothing wrong with them."

"I know," Kirito smiled. "But some of us didn't. Some of us used our knowledge to get an early edge, especially after hearing the stakes. Yes, I'm a Beta. I'm the guy that claimed to be a cheater. I wasn't, though. But one of the Betas I met, one who had gone out of his way to try to help everyone and keep everyone alive, died protecting them and me. He asked me to make sure that no one blamed the Betas for bad things happening at every turn, so I created the rumor of a cheater among the Betas. Everyone, Betas and beginners alike, hated me and worked together because of their hatred of the idea of a cheater. But, because of that, anyone who finds out who I am, knows me as the cheater. So they avoid and ostracize me. I just didn't want all of you to do that too."

"I could never," Sachi smiled resting a hand on his cheek. "You're one of the best people I've ever met. I could never hate you for playing early. Even if you were a cheater, I couldn't hate you. You mean too much to me."

Kirito blinked in surprise as a dark blush spread on Sachi's face and she began stuttering and stammering, trying to find a way to take back her accidental confession. Kirito simply smiled and rested his own hand on the side of her face, Sachi having pulled her own back to clasp with the other, the most common of her subtle tells for shyness and embarrassment.

"Sachi," Kirito laughed. "The past month that I've been training you, I've seen that you're one of the most caring people I've ever met. You're not afraid to show concern for others and you will go to any lengths, including fighting monsters that you know are too strong for you to beat, to protect those close to you. I'd be lying if I said I didn't care about you. You're one of the most important people in the world to me."

Sachi stared at him for a moment, tears building in her eyes and a blush building in her cheeks, before she threw her arms around Kirito in a hug, sobbing happily into his shoulder. He chuckled and hugged her back.

"You were really scared I wouldn't feel the same huh?" Kirito asked sitting up with Sachi.

She pulled back, nodding, and wiping her eyes. Kirito smiled and leaned forward, kissing her and making her "eep" in surprise. After a moment, she closed her eyes, kissing him back. After a couple seconds, Kirito pulled back and smiled.

"Like I said, you're one of the most important people in the world to me," Kirito smiled. "And the other one is my sister."

Sachi smiled and hugged Kirito again, again sobbing into his shoulder. He sighed, holding her against him as he lay back down, allowing her to lay her head on his shoulder. After a few minutes, she finally stopped crying and drifted off to sleep, smiling with her right hand holding Kirito's left and her left hand around his back as Kirito's right arm held her against himself. He smiled down at her, silently promising that he would protect her with his life. Then, he placed a gentle kiss on the top of her head and also drifted off to sleep.

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	3. Chapter 3

I do not own Sword Art Online or any of the characters.

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><p>Mistake<p>

Kirito gripped his sword tightly, almost seeming afraid, but in reality just exceptionally tense. The reason was simple, Keita, leader of the Moonlit Black Cats, Kirito's guild, had gone back to floor one to buy them a base of operations for their guild. While he was gone, the other three guys had unanimously decided that they should skip up a lot of levels to twenty seven, which they were not ready for. For Kirito it wouldn't be a problem, Sachi could probably survive most situations in the level as well. The level was about thirty two in difficulty. Kirito knew he could kill the enemies with ease if he needed to but the others would die if they were swarmed.

"You see?" Sasamaru, the guild's other lancer, spoke up. "I told you guys, this is gonna be cake! We might even be able to reach the front lines sooner."

"That's what I'm talking about," Ducker, the guild's thief, spoke up before noticing a glowing mark on the wall. "Look!"

The dungeon they were in was a labyrinth, with white walls and white blocks for a floor, gaps here and there creating fatal fall hazards. The wall around the mark glowed and faded, revealing a secret door leading into a large room that was a rough square with countless blocks forming walls and square tiles laid on top of each other to form the floor, overlapping everywhere. In the middle of the room sat a single chest. Kirito instantly didn't trust it.

"A treasure chest!" Ducker cheered, sprinting into the room and toward the chest.

"Wait!" Kirito shouted as he quickly sent Sachi better armor and a lance that had much better damage than her staff.

She smiled up at him and equipped them all, her white shirt and black miniskirt being replaced by a light blue mid-rift shirt and a white miniskirt that was a half inch shorter than the last. The lance was entirely silver with a gold ball on the back end and another at the base of the spear head.

Sasamaru and Tetsuo, Kirito's fellow forward and a hammer- or maul-and-shield user, both stopped, looking back but Ducker ignored him, dropping to one knee in front of the chest and opened it. His smile faltered and an alarm sounded, the room suddenly turning blood red. The door swung closed and locked and more slid open in the walls, revealing rows upon rows of enemies, some gnomes with pickaxes that were much faster and stronger than those Kirito had trained Sachi against, Dark Dwarf Miners, and others were massive golems made of stones, Mineral Elementals.

"It's a trap guys!" Kirito stated as they formed a tight circle, the enemies forming a circle around them. "Hurry! Let's get out of here!"

"Teleport!" Ducker shouted holding up his teleportation crystal. "Taft!"

Nothing.

"Teleport Taft!" Ducker tried again, voice cracking in terror.

"We can't use our crystals!" Sachi gasped.

"They're probably being blocked by the walls," Kirito guessed.

The lines of Dark Dwarf Miners all charged forward, leaping at them as one. Kirito slashed several, killing them but Ducker, who had left the circle when one attacked him, allowing Kirito to kill it for him, was tackled by another before three more joined it and they all drove their pickaxes into his back again and again. After two seconds, his avatar exploded and a Mineral Elemental moved forward to attack Kirito.

"Sachi, Tetsuo, Sasamaru, get over here!" Kirito ordered killing the golem.

A Mineral Elemental swing its arm at Sasamaru but Tetsuo stepped between them, raising his shield. When the arm hit, however, Tetsuo was thrown away and exploded.

"Tetsuo!" Sasamaru shouted charging and driving his spear into the Mineral Elemental.

It didn't react and raised its arm. Before it could kill him, however, Sachi's lance drove itself through its head, killing it before the lance returned to Sachi. Sasamaru sighed and sprinted over to her, pulling her out of the way of a Dark Dwarf Miner's pickaxe. The two of them reached Kirito who had fought his way to a corner and pulled both of them behind him, holding his sword in front of him.

"Whatever happens, stay behind me," Kirito instructed. "Sachi, throw your spear at the Mineral Elementals. Sasamaru, you need to get your healing potions out."

Both nodded as the dwarves charged again. Kirito slashed two aside then blocked a pickaxe and shove the dwarf into another, slashing both and killing them. Sachi's lance flashed over him, hitting a Mineral Elemental but didn't kill him. She tried again and the monster exploded. Kirito killed another dwarf and one right behind it slashed at him. He stepped back, the pickaxe tearing through his left side and dropping his health a good deal. He stepped forward again, slashing the dwarf and then another. Then, a third slashed him and he stumbled back, tripping over Sachi and both fell, Sachi catching Kirito. A Dark Dwarf Miner leapt at them, slashing and Sachi spun her staff, blocking the attack but she still took damage, her health dropping by just over half. Another leapt forward as Kirito reached for his fallen sword but Sasamaru stepped forward, driving his spear forward and impaling the dwarf. It hung limp for a moment as Sachi and Kirito both went into the shared inventory page they had set up and got a health potion and drinking it. Just as they did, the impaled dwarf snapped its head up, grinning wickedly and raising its pickaxe.

"No way!" Sasamaru gasped just before the pickaxe tore through his throat, killing him.

Kirito pushed himself up, slashing the dwarf and three more, before backing up, less than a foot in front of Sachi who was pressed tightly into the corner.

"Damn," Kirito growled. "It's a survival trap."

As he said this, more monster of both types appeared in flashes of light on the opposite side of the room.

"What do we do?" Sachi asked, voice shaking almost as bad as she was.

"Stay here," Kirito growled as his sword began to glow.

He sprinted forward, slashing every monster he came two and killing them, moving fast enough that he was able to zip back and forth, keeping the enemies from reaching Sachi. After a moment, a pickaxe and then a Mineral Elemental's hand got past his blade and hit him, dropping his health to just above red and throwing him. He pushed himself up, legs shaking, then sprinted forward, attacking them again and again tearing into them, killing anything he reached. After about three minutes, a dwarf flew over him, directly toward Sachi. She screamed and he got between the two, stabbing the thing just as its pickaxe drove itself into his left shoulder. He fell to one knee, life barely a sliver of the bar. He got another health potion and drank it, barely reaching high red for health, but growled, raising his sword. There were no dwarves left. Only Mineral Elementals, and only about twenty of them. He sprinted forward again, slashing two at the knees then back across the necks and ducked under a Mineral Elemental's hand. He killed that one then jumped over another swipe, spinning and decapitating three. As he landed, he dove sideways, rolling to his feet as one that had jumped crashed down where he had been. He darted forward, stabbing through that one and into another then spun, ripping his sword out of them before bisecting another. As he turned, one swung at him too fast for him to dodge. Sachi stepped between them, blocking it with her staff, health dropping to about the same percentage as him, only much lower actual amount, and she stabbed the golem in the face, killing it before staggering backward into Kirito. He pushed her into the corner again, then bent backward as a hand sailed over him, removing itself on his sword blade. The severed arm sailed into another and killed it before Kirito stood and killed the one that had attacked him. He stumbled toward Sachi, who was unconscious, and watched the last eight. They were standing in a loose group and he knew he could kill them all. it was just a question of whether or not he could kill them all before one of them attack him.

His sword blade glowed and he sprinted forward, slashing the first one, spinning past a swipe from the second and killing it from behind then spinning, cutting the third in half length-wise, then jumped over a swipe, bisecting the fourth's head. He stepped forward and slashed the fifth across the chest, then stepped diagonally backward and to the left, avoiding a punch from the sixth before splitting its arm and then torso in half. The seventh leapt at him and he ducked under it, splitting it as it flew over him, then spun toward the last as its hand descended. Before it could hit, a glowing green lance flew past, scratching his shoulder and dropping his health by half of what he had left before the lance drilled its way through the Mineral Elemental's chest, killing the thing and ending the trap, the room turning blue again. Kirito dropped his sword, falling to his knees as Sachi rushed forward, hugging him and beginning to sob from pent up fear and grief at the loss of three of her friends. Kirito held her against him for a few minutes as his health slowly regenerated to half and hers to about two fifths. Then, he stood and pulled her up, picking up his sword and wiping her eyes.

"We have to go," Kirito stated. "We have to get out of here before anything else shows up. And we have to find Keita. He needs to know."

Sachi nodded and they left the room then both teleported back to taft. When they arrived, Keita was waiting.

"There you are!" Keita shouted running forward. "Where are the others?"

He stopped, seeing Sachi on the verge of tears and the fact that both of them had health bars of half or less.

"W...what happened?" Keita breathed.

"They...they wanted to try to level up in a higher dungeon, specifically Level twenty seven," Kirito stated. "I tried to talk them out of it but they wouldn't listen. We found an anti-crystal trap. They...they're dead. I'm sorry."

Keita stared at them, waiting for a punch line that wasn't coming. Then, he stumbled back sitting down on a stone wall as shock and grief grew on his face.

"How...how did you two live?" Keita asked.

"I protected Sachi," Kirito stated. "Ducker died right away, but I tried to protect Tetsuo and Sasamaru too but Tetsuo died protecting Sasamaru and Sasamaru died shielding me and Sachi from an enemy."

"Why were you able to survive injuries and kill enemies that they couldn't?" Keita demanded.

"I...I lied about my level when we met," Kirito stated. "I was level forty back then. Now I'm level forty eight. Sachi survived because, through our training the past month, she's now level thirty one."

"Already?" Keita breathed. "So that's why you were training her. But, why not the others?"

"Had I known what was going to happen, I would have had you all fighting alongside me and Sachi at all times for twice as long as me and Sachi were," Kirito stated. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know what would happen."

"It's...okay," Keita sighed. "But, how are you such a high level?"

"I'm a Beta," Kirito admitted. "I'm a higher level because when we first got here, I did easy missions and fought constantly to get money and experience for better weapons and armor. I'm sorry I hid it from you."

"You're a...no, you're that Beater!" Keita shouted remembering the rumors about the cheating Beta. "You don't deserve to be int eh Moonlit Black Cats. You never did!"

"You're right," Kirito nodded. "It's partially my fault for not telling you the truth. If I had, maybe they would be alive now."

"It doesn't matter anymore," Keita growled kicking Kirito from the guild. "We're done with you. Come on Sachi."

"No," Sachi said quietly but firmly.

"What?" Keita snarled.

"I'm not choosing you over Kirito," Sachi stated slipping her hand into Kirito's. "He's the sole reason I'm alive and is the most important person i the world to me. I'm sorry. but if I have to choose, this is goodbye."

"You're dating?" Keita blinked before smirking in spite of his rage. "Can't say I'm surprised I guess. But still. I'm not changing my mind."

"You don't need to," Kirito stated. "I really do believe that you would make an excellent addition to the Assault Team if you were a higher level. You could help them not be so full of themselves. But you need to be stronger first. If you don't mind, I have a suggestion for you. A friend of mine, not a Beta or a cheater, has a guild of his own that could use someone like you. They're a bit stronger than you but would help you level up quickly if you joined."

"Who?" Keita sighed.

"The Guild is Fuurinkazan," Kirito stated. "The leader, my friend, is named Klein. I'll send tell him to meet you here. He wears red samurai armor, not easy to miss. Tell him you're a recommendation from me."

Keita stared at him for a moment then nodded and continued walking. Kirito turned to Sachi who looked hurt but smiled in spite of herself.

"Thank you," Kirito smiled. "I can't imagine how hard it must be to have to choose between your friend or me."

"It hurts," Sachi admitted. "But in the end, it wasn't really that much of a decision."

Kirito smiled and kissed Sachi who kissed him back before he looked up at the ceiling above them. He was definitely not going to go back to that level for a while, and especially not with Sachi, but she could survive level twenty four or five. And Sasamaru was right. Higher levels would level her up faster, allowing him to not have to worry about her so much, and her to not feel like a hinderance.

"Come on Sachi," Kirito grinned. "You and I are going to get something to eat then go up to twenty four to get you stronger. And if you want, you can just watch for a while."

Sachi smiled and nodded, trusting him to protect her, and the two of them turned and walked toward the nearest restaurant. All the while Kirito had one thought in mind.

_Thank God I took the time to train Sachi. Otherwise, things could have been very different._

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